Branded A house of night fanfic
by Keanna Black
Summary: Layla Brady is new at the house of Night, what will she get up to? She can read minds and she has an affinity for spirit! HON events in Layla's POV. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

**Branded**

**Chapter 1**

School that day, was really doing my head in, every teacher seemed to have their beady eyes on me, or is that me being Paranoid? Anyway I went to my next class, feeling utterly weird, like something was consuming me from the inside. Yay I have English next, How fascinating… I sat down restlessly in the English classroom, my best friend for life, Shala, who was chatting away about something that I didn't even care about was sitting on my right, also Kasia was on the other side of me and she was staring off into the distance, so I couldn't even pretend to be talking to her.

"No seriously Layla, it is the best shop ever! Are you even listening to me?" Shala asked me, poking me on the arm.

"Oh, huh? Yeah of course…" I frowned rubbing my arm where she had (painfully) poked it.

"Then what did I just say?" Shala narrowed her eyes, testing me.

"Something about shopping?" I raised my eyebrow at the unconvinced expression on her face. "Look, you know I don't like anything to do with shopping, so stop staring at me like I have two heads… Which of course I don't, but that's beside the point… Oh look you've got me babbling on about god knows what now. I'm starting to act like you… This is not a good thing." I was out of breath by the time I finished my desperate little rant.

The rant hadn't seemed to have any affect on the way Shala was staring at me, and she was really starting to tick me off.

"Why are you staring at me?" I finally asked after trying to look away from to see if she would turn away, which she didn't.

"Nothing, you just dissed shopping… Which in my books means you don't have sense?" Shala made the last part of her lecture a question, so I just blinked and replied with a cold voice.

"I do have sense, I will never go and spend my life's money on clothes that I'll never wear like you do." I looked away from her shocked look and turned to Kasia. "Are you gonna stop gawking at thin air?" I asked, smiling a tiny bit as Kasia snapped out of her weird trance.

"Yeah, sorry." Kasia smiled back at me. _I could hug her._

"So what were you thinking of anyway?" I pondered on it while she tried to remember what she was thinking about, or rather what she was going to tell me and what she wasn't going to tell me.

There was this really cute guy in our year, so she might have been thinking about him, but then again, Kasia wasn't the kind of person to daydream about guys. This is one of the kinds of people you need in your friendship group so they can tell you that it's not a big deal when you lose your boyfriend or whatnot (Whatnot being your sense).

"I was just thinking about how it would be so awesome if I moved to the UK or somewhere that's not so sunny." Kasia finally said.

"Oh, the UK is boring, trust me. I was born there." I said simply. Well I was born there and I did live there for the first seven years of my life. _I wonder if it's any better now that it's nine years since I was living there._ I thought, pondering on whether I should plan a trip to the UK to see if it wasn't crappy anymore. (Oh great now I WANT to go back to the UK, what is wrong with me?)

"Well that is your opinion; I might think its fun." Kasia mumbled. "What's with Shala being so quiet? It's not like her."

"Um, that's because I dissed shopping… But seriously shopping is so not my thing." I told Kasia, just as our English teacher twitched into the room, yes, I said twitched, seriously, it gets annoying when she does that all the time.

"Good morning class!" She said in her way too exuberant attitude. Seriously, you'd need therapy after having even one class with this woman.

"Good morning, Mrs. Madden." We all replied, sounding like we hadn't been to bed in like years, which is true for some people in this room. I stared around, not listening to Mrs Madface's (yes I call her that…) lecture about the new coursework assignment that we were supposedly going to start today. Of course no one would bother to do it until the last minute, which Mrs Madface seemed to know because now she was saying that if they start it today she might bring in sweets for us the next English class. _Oh yay sweets! Cause sweets make everything better… Yeah right._

"Layla, would you stop daydreaming and pay attention!" Mrs. Madden called to me, (gosh, did she always have her eyes on me? And what about Kasia? She's daydreaming too).

It was round about there that I began coughing, _Oh gosh, now after all I've been through that day, getting yelled at by my maths teacher to give an example, I've got a terrible cough now? How… Fun._

"Sorry Mrs. Madden..." I said after a coughing fit or two.

"Are you okay Layla? Do you wanna go to the matron to get some coughing medicine?" Mrs. Madden asked, looking concerned now rather than that idiotic annoyed look she normally wore when looking at me, in particular.

"Yeah, okay." I replied, coughing again.

"Okay. Shala will you take her to Matron?" Mrs. Madden said it like a question but it sounded more of an order, which wasn't surprising, to me anyway.

"Yeah, of course I will." Shala looked concerned too, _what the heck? Do I look pale or something?_ Shala got up and practically lead me out of the room, _gosh does she think I'm gonna fall over? _But then again I did feel a bit dizzy.

We walked down the corridor, but I had to stop to let another coughing fit consume me. And that's when it happened, this guy, who had some seriously weird tattoos appeared in front of me and Shala. Shala screamed, noticing what he was before I did, she hid behind me and whispered in my ear "That's a Vampyre! A _tracker_ to be precise." She sounded scared, why wouldn't she be? But the problem was I wasn't scared, it had just dawned on my why I was coughing. I was going to become a Vampire Fledgling, oh great.

"Layla Brady! You have been chosen to join us at the house of Night!" The tracker said, pointing a finger at me. I felt my head explode in a headache and had to lean on Shala so I wouldn't fall over.

"God no!" Shala screamed again, moving away so I completely fell over. "You turned my BFFL into a freak! Turn her back! Turn her back!" She yelled at thin air, the tracker had already disappeared.

"HEY! Mrs. Madden sent me down to find out what was tak- OHMYGOODNESS!" Kasia clasped her hand over her mouth to stifle a squeal of delight. "Layla's gonna finally get out of this place!" Kasia didn't bother to hide the next squeal that came out of her mouth.

"Seriously guys, stop freaking out… I'm fine." I muttered, getting up, and then I was hit with another coughing fit.

"If we don't get you to the house of night, you are gonna cough yourself to death, Layla!" Shala moaned, looking slightly pale. _Well at least she's not abandoning me._ No seriously, the last girl to get marked from this school, had been completely abandoned, okay if you don't include her insane ex-boyfriend, or were they together again? Ah well, who cares.

"Okay, so I'll go to the house of night. My mother is going to kill me…" I muttered walking to the exit. The bell rang for end of class and people starting pouring out of their classes. Then they stopped, gawking at me. Oh great I have an audience as I shamefully walk out of school. Just brilliant.

Kasia didn't like the audience, she kept glaring at them, and Shala obviously wanted to disappear into the crowds, she was still freaked, but was still following me, like the somewhat good friend she was, even though she was obsessed with shopping. Seriously why was she my friend again? Oh yeah, because our parents were so close.

"Stop looking at her! She's not Zoey." Kasia frowned at some people. Luckily, unlike Zoey, I don't have a boyfriend, which did bug me before but now it's nice to not have to break up with someone over a mark on your head. It's like I was branded the new weirdo that the people of faith would have to take down, God I wish I didn't know Zoey's step-loser of a step-dad. He's gonna freak, just like he freaked when Zoey got marked. Though I didn't know Zoey quite as much as I wish I did, I really didn't need to worry anymore, after all I _was_ going to the same school as her now.

I got to the car park, finally away from the masses of gawking idiots; seriously they were staring at me like I had magically grown two heads. Talk about invading your personal bubble. I found my black convertible, okay yes; I'm sort of rich, but I'm not all like 'OMG look at my money!', and climbed in. Of course Kasia and Shala climbed in too. _I could hug them both_.

"Thanks guys… For not ditching me…" I smiled at both of them. Bet I looked goofy with a mark and a grin on my face. Kasia and Shala just smiled back.

"I'd never dessert you, Layla, no matter how freaked I get." Shala told me.

"I'm glad you are marked, but… does this mean we'll never see you again?" Kasia asked.

"I don't know, Kazzie. I don't know…"I told her the truth, I really didn't know if I'd ever get the chance to see my two BFFL's again...I realized how ironic that was, they couldn't really be my friends anymore. I then started the car and drove of, heading home first, still coughing my life away.

When I got home I parked the car in my double driveway, seriously I'm _sort_ of rich, my parents were the really rich ones. I clambered out and walked up to my… Mansion. There said it. Happy now? Kasia and Shala stayed in the car, were they gonna stick with me all the way to the House of Night? I really did hope so. But then again, they'd probably want to go home because they were so freaked out, and they really wouldn't want to have a sob fest when we had to say goodbye.

I walked silently into the massive hall after unlocking the "grand" front doors and made my way unbelievably quietly into the hall, considering that I felt like coughing my lungs up.

"Mum? Dad?" I called, hearing soft talking, and then I noticed that there were three people talking. John Heffer was here. Oh great. I heard walking and the opening of a door and my very pretty mother stuck her head out and then almost yelped in surprised as she noticed the, what seemed to be, a very interesting mark on my head. Yep, just great.

"What's going on?" I heard John say from inside, I felt my stomach clench as he walked up beside my mother.

"My God!" John almost sounded like he was out of breath.

"Hey, it's not my fault." I tried to say it with nonchalance but it came out as a whisper. I then went into another coughing fit, forcing me to bend over.

"We have to get her to the house of night, or you never know what might happen to her!" I heard my dad say, okay so I hadn't noticed that he'd appeared too, curious of what was going on, but I looked up at him, finally someone who understood.

"I'll die if I don't go there." I told him, his face turned white.

"No, she can't go there." John sneered.

"Yes I can, you didn't stop Zoey, did you? And you're not going to stop me. So excuse me while I go get my stuff and then get the hell out of here, before I do die… Bet you wouldn't have cared, if you had managed to keep Zoey from going to the house of night, and you just let her die, would you? No, I didn't think so!" I sneered back and stomped up the stairs, ignoring John's yelling, gosh, did he want to be my dad or something? I shuddered at the thought.

I came back downstairs about ten minutes later, dragging a suitcase full of my clothes; I knew that my furniture would be brought there by other people.

"Okay, so who's bringing me before I drop dead in front of you all?" I asked, blinking around, I didn't mean to joke about me dying but that's just the way I am.

"I will, your mother is yelling at John, saying stuff like "You're not her father!" Which is true, he isn't, he has no control over you my pet." My dad smiled, holding his car keys. _Gosh I could hug him_

"Thank you dad! You're the best." Oh great I'm turning into a daddy's girl.

"You're welcome, pet." Dad smiled and opened the front door and walked over to his BMW and climbed in. I Clambered into the passenger seat, looked into the back seats to see my two BFFL's sitting there, gosh they were really two wee angels who were obsessed with shopping and then I nearly coughed a lung up, my head was searing with pain and I felt like I was going to faint. I seriously needed to get to the House of Night or I wouldn't last much longer. I saw my mum kicking John out of the house as I left my life as I knew it behind me. Oh great… A new life. Just what I need. But looking on the bright side of this, at least I didn't have to hand in my Chemistry coursework…


	2. Chapter 2

**Branded**

**Disclaimer:**

**Layla: hello! **

**Kasia: Howdy there Layla!**

**Shala: Yep HI!**

**Layla: Okay Shala, that was a bit over enthusiastic…**

**Shala; Oh I know.**

**Layla: Yep.**

**Kasia: Can we get back to what we are supposed to be saying?**

**-They're sitting in the cafeteria in the house of night.-**

**Layla; Yeah sure, of course.**

**Shala: What are we here for? This is the cafeteria, we're here to eat.**

**-Shala starts to get up.-**

**Layla: NO! Yes we may be in the most unlikely place, but this is a disclaimer, we're here to tell you that certain characters in this Fanfic series, does not belong to our dear creator, Zaira.**

**Shala: Oh ya.**

**-Shala sits back down.-**

**Kasia: Right, first of all, me, Layla and Shala, belong to Zaira. So no going off thinking that we belong to P.C and Kristen Cast, because we don't. **

**Layla: Now Zoey and John Heffer and all of Zoey's friends-**

**Shala: Don't forget Neferet…**

**-They all growl.-**

**Shala: and the other teachers.**

**-They all smile.-**

**Layla: yeah those too, they all belong to P.C and Kristen Cast and not Zaira.**

**Kasia: So there you have it, now we have to go get us some amazing food.**

**-Zoey sits down randomly.-**

**Zoey: What? Can't I randomly sit down here? We are friends after all.**

**Layla; yes of course. One more note, Zoey's friendship group is bigger than it is in the house of night books. And Aphrodite doesn't belong to our creator either, forgot to mention that.**

**Zoey: Yep, Aphrodite is too mean to belong to Zaira!**

**-Everyone laughs.-**

**Layla: I can be mean when I want too…**

**The others: WE KNOW!**

**-End of disclaimer.-**

**Chapter 2**

We drove on down towards the House of Night, well at least I thought that's where my dad was heading, till I realized he was heading towards the lavender farm that Zoey's Grandma owned, like what the heck?

"Um, Dad, why are we going to Sylvia's lavender farm?" I asked, frowning at him, as the smell of fresh lavender filled my nose.

"I just want to tell her the… I guess it is good news, isn't it?" Dad asked me, glancing at me.

"Well yeah, I guess… but if I don't get to the House of Night soon, you know what happens…" I warned him, feeling a bit weird.

"Yes, I know, but we still have time, right? I mean you're not lying on the floor dying right now." He joked; okay I was a LOT like my dad.

"Yeah, you're right." I grinned.

"Then it's settled, we go say hi to Sylvia." My dad grinned back as we pulled up and stopped.

Kasia and Shala had been very quiet the whole journey, but now they had grins on their faces too; they loved it here, and frankly, so did I.

I saw Sylvia walk out from the lavender field, and came bustling over to us as we climbed out of the car.

"Oh! You've been blessed with a mark, I'm guessing you're making your way to the house of night?" Sylvia asked, smiling.

"Yeah, we wanted to tell you, so you wouldn't wonder why Layla wasn't coming to your farm." My dad smiled back.

"Well it's nice to know you'll be joining Zoeybird." Sylvia smiled at me.

"Well we can't stay long, I don't want Layla dying…" Kasia looked a bit sad.

"I know, I know." Sylvia patted Kasia on the arm. Gosh I love this woman.

After getting milk and cookies, we got back into the car, and headed away, leaving a waving Cherokee woman behind, gosh my life was really changing.

As we finally drove up into the house of night car park, I felt the weirdness I felt lift, finally, no more coughing! Gosh that makes me happy. Seriously coughing your life away hurts. My dad parked the car and we all got out, Shala's look of awkwardness had disappeared and now she was standing in awe at the beauty of the place. This was where I was staying now. Ohmaigawshyay! Um… Sorry, I'm just getting over-excited now, but eh, that's just me, as I said before. We walked up to what seemed to be the front doors to the House of Night. We had nearly reached the doors, they opened and a very beautiful woman came out, smiling. But something was wrong with that smile, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was a fake smile non-the-less. I kept hearing other people's voices in my head… WAIT did I have a gift? Ohmaigawsh I can read minds! I concentrated on the beautiful woman, and I could hear something else going on in her head, but the thoughts were confused and muddled up. I left it at that cause my head was hurting and she was staring at me with a weird expression. Not good.

"Welcome to the House of Night, Layla." she said in a motherly voice.

"Thank you." How did she know my name?

"Your friends and dad will have to go now." She smiled that fake smile of hers.

"Oh yeah, of course." My dad sighed, "Good bye my pet." My dad gave me a giant hug and then walked off before he could burst into tears, and that would totally embarrass me.

"Buh-bye Layla…" Kasia said in amongst tears.

"Bye Kazzie!" I couldn't hold it any longer; I burst into tears as I hugged my two best friends' for not so life.

"I'm gonna miss you, Layla." Shala whispered in my ear and then they both ran off to my dad's car so they couldn't be seen bawling their eyes out anymore.

Neferet lead me into the school, walking swiftly. "I'm gonna take you to the dorms, nobody's up yet, well at least I think there isn't." She smiled, looking down at me.

There was something really wrong with this person, but what was it? Next thing I knew we were outside again, making our way across the grounds of the school, towards another big building.

"Wow, this place is better than I first thought." I exclaimed, staring around at the beauty of the place.

"Yes, it is a very nice place." Neferet answered, opening the door to the girl's dorm.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Neferet was the high priestess of this House of Night? Sorry 'bout that, my mind went blank, because she is very pretty. There were a few girls up, watching TV, including a girl who looked _very_ familiar. Ohmaigawsh it was Zoey.

"Zoey!" I squeaked, gosh, I sounded like a right idiot.

"Huh? OH! Layla! Nice mark." She smirked, realizing who I was. I left Neferet and skipped over to Zoey, happy beyond my dreams.

"Well, at least I know someone here, even if not very well." I smiled.

"Yeah, you're lucky. I came here, and everyone was staring at me because my mark was filled in." Zoey mumbled. That's when I noticed it; her mark was filled in with a sapphire colour.

"It's really pretty." I smiled again, looking away from the mark. Oh, please. I'm not a gawking idiot like some people.

"Thanks." Zoey replied. "Oooh I should introduce you to my friends!"

"Well, I'm glad you're already settling in, I'll leave you be." Neferet said, making me jump, I'd forgotten she was there.

"Okay, thanks for showing me the way, Neferet." I grinned at her, could she tell my smile was as fake as hers?

Neferet blinked, hesitated, and then left. Yes, I bet she could.

"What's up with her?" Zoey frowned.

"No idea." I told the truth, I don't know why she was so bothered about me.

I wanted to know if vampyres could have gifts, so I simply just had to ask.

"Zoey, can Vampyres have gifts… Or powers?" I asked, trying to see if I could read her mind, but nothing but blurriness came to me.

"Well yeah, people can have affinities for the elements and some people have other gifts like having visions and stuff. Why, do you think you have a gift?" Zoey questioned me with so much curiosity, it was sort of scaring me.

"I think I can read minds." There was something in my head telling me I was right. But then why couldn't I read Zoey's mind?

"Wow, that's an amazing gift. I know that adult vampyres are very intuitive, but I've never came across someone who could read minds, and I've been here for 2 weeks." Zoey smiled.

"Another thing, does Neferet seems… A bit odd to you?" I asked, feeling a bit awkward for questioning the high Priestess when I've only been here for less than an hour.

"Well, there is sometimes I wonder what's going through her mind." Zoey frowned.

"Also, that smile of hers is so fake, I just know it…" I said without thinking, but before Zoey could say anything, a boy and three girls clomped over to where Zoey was sitting and I was standing.

"Hey!" Zoey greeted them. "This is Layla, she's new, and she went to the same school as me before getting marked.

"Hey Layla!" The boy grinned at me. I pretended I didn't know what was going through his head. But one thing for sure he was Gay and his name was Damien. Hmm, should I freak them out? Yes, I'm that cruel.

"Hey… Damien is it?" I smiled back at him. His eyes widened and then looked to Zoey, who eyes were big too.

"Wow, you really can read minds." Zoey exclaimed.

"What? Oh, I guess that clarifies how she knows my name." Damien blinked. "This also means you know I'm gay."

"Well yeah." I felt awkward now.

"Hey, don't worry." Damien smiled up at me from the chair he had flopped onto.

"Okay." I grinned, and then looked to a coffee-coloured girl. "You're Shaunee." I looked to the girl that was sitting beside her. "And you're Erin, and even though you look nothing like each other, personality wise you are so alike that it's freak and people call you the Twins." I chuckled at their astonished expressions.

"That is…" Erin gulped.

"Amazing." Shaunee finished for Erin.

"And that leaves, Stevie Rae." I grinned at the Oklahoma girl.

"Yep, that's me." Stevie Rae smiled at me.

"School starts soon." Zoey pointed out. I then realized they were all dressed in some sort of uniform.

Just then I heard the dorm door open and a blonde haired girl twitched in. Ohmaigawsh she reminds me of Mrs. Madden.

"That bitch, is Aphrodite." Shaunee growled, Erin growled as well.

"You got that right, twin." Erin mumbled.

"Weird, I can't read her mind… But then again, I can't read yours either, Zoey. And Neferet's mind is all muddled up and it hurts to try and guess what she's thinking, but there IS something going on…" I frowned.

"That's weird." Zoey returned the frown, looking away from the approaching Aphrodite.

"Hey, Layla right? Neferet says you're my new roommate." Aphrodite smirked. Oh gosh, a hag from hell, that's what that, was in Shaunee and Erin's mind.

"Oh great. I'm stuck with a hag?" I sighed, and Shaunee and Erin burst into fits of laughter, Hmm… Maybe I'll fit in here just fine.


End file.
